The Power of El vs The Strength of Heart
by Dragonmaster870
Summary: Okay, let's add someone to the already flamboyant Elgang. Now let's make that person a Keyblade wielder. Join the eight of them as they embark on an epic quest full of bandits, weird names, pointless vandalism, cowardly fighting styles, and the Unversed to return peace to Elrios!
1. Debut Performance

**A/N: Heh, this one should be fun. I should probably let you guys know (if you haven't picked up on it already), that the only aspect of Kingdom Hearts applied in this fic is the Unversed, from the less-acclaimed _Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. _And, of course, an original character that wields a Keyblade. Other than that, this is centered around the Elgang. So yeah, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Lea, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Xion, Roxas, Ansem, Xehanort, Organization XIII, or anyone else from the Kingdom Hearts franchise are not included in this fic.**

**Speaking of "not included", I might have to let slip a disclaimer. *clears throat***

_**I, Dragonmaster870, do not own Elsword or Kingdom Hearts—those are both property of their respective owners. I do not seek to manipulate the original storylines of these two great works of imagination for my personal gain, I only seek to have some fun with the ideas in my head and the characters.**_

**So without further ado, let the story** **commence!**

**Chapter 1: Debut Performance**

* * *

The red-haired warrior gasps as the hilt of the bandit leader's sword catches him in the gut. He doubles over, and the bandit brings his knee up and catches the young warrior in the face. He falls on his back, and his sword clatters onto the ground beside him.

_Gosh, he doesn't stand a chance against this guy!_ I think, as I try to stay still as I can in the bushes. _Well, then again, I probably don't either..._

"Bah, you think you can beat me with that strength?" He spits on the ground beside him, and looks evilly down at him. "There's no use in keeping on trying. I mean, I already have this." He pulls a glowing blue-green crystal out of his pouch on his side. He waves it in his face a bit, as if to gloat, then puts it back I the pouch. Then he stares hard at the boy and is silent for a few moments. "You know, I _could _end this right now; kids like you end up a real pain in the ass if left alone long enough, but that wouldn't be any fun, now would it?"

_Why did I have to wake up to this? Why not, like, a lovers' spat at least, or a festival or something? _I complain to myself as sit back on my haunches. Unfortunately, I hear a twig snap in the bush I'm hiding in. I shudder, as that was the loudest thing in the silence that followed the bandit leader's speech.

"Hmm? Tobu, go and scour that area, will ya?" The leader commands the bandit in green, who grunts his acknowledgment as he comes directly to the bush I had set up camp in. I stay as still as I can, watching him anxiously as he looks straight at me, but he seems not to notice as he walks deeper into the foliage.

I breathe a sigh of relief, though unfortunately it's too soon, because I feel a hand grip the collar of my shirt and yank me into the open. "We have a little rat snooping around, Banthus, sir!"

"Gah!" I grunt as I half twist away, half get tossed onto my face in the dirt in front of Banthus. I stay in that less-than-graceful position for a moment, debating what to do, before something gets in my eye and I scramble to my knees and rub my eye vigorously. When I finish, I find myself being stared at by everyone in the confrontation.

"Tobu...that's a little girl. If you saw it was a little girl, you should have just let her be." He glances at the bandit behind me with a slightly exasperated expression.

"That's the thing, sir. We haven't had a girl in a while!" he says, getting closer to me. Uncomfortably close, in fact, but I can't bring myself to move away.

"Look, we bandits have a code of ethics, too. They have to be 16 or older for us to mess with them, Tobu. Back away from her." he commands him, and I hear him click his tongue and back up, but not before he runs a hand through my hair.

"Don't touch me." I mutter, anger starting to bubble up inside me. Not only because this stranger obviously has perverted and pedophile-like fantasies, but because they think I'm a girl. Though I can't really blame them, with my long pale gray-purple hair, gray eyes, and small stature, I suppose I can pass as a flat-chested thirteen year old girl.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What," he moves so that he's breathing his liquor-stained breath onto my ear, "did you just say?"

"I said, don't touch me, you nasty pervert." I say, making it sound as cheery as I can to see if I can throw him off. To emphasize it, I scoot away and flash a smile at him.

"Ah, you have spirit. I'd love to be able to _break it_." He says the last part through clenched teeth, and moves even closer than before, pressing himself against my back.

"You're not going to get any further while I'm here, bastard." the redhead declares, picking himself up and brandishing his great sword, this time at the creep next to me.

"Oh please, kid. You," He grabs me around the waist and presses me against him, this time setting my anger into the stratosphere, "are hardly in a position to be making declarations like that.

"I. Said. Do. Not. Touch. Me!" I yell, twisting around and hitting in the arm. But something weird happens. I feel a spray of blood on my face and arm as he screams and stumbles away, clutching his arm with blood running down it. I look down at my hand and see a weird looking sword. The hand guard is black and in the shape hexagon, with the two sides corresponding with the handle curved inward and the handle being white. The blade is a network of curved lines crisscrossing each other, some white and some gray, and the areas where the opposing colors cross being grey. The end of it goes to a point, and there are three double-helixes bunched up on the end perpendicular with the point, with the top outside one being black, the center one being gray, and the lowermost one being white. On the hand guard there is a keychain, with a double-helix at the end also composed of the three colors, though the layout seems to be ever-changing. Come to think of it, the whole sword resembles a key. But how did it get in my hand?

The bandit stares angrily at me, and a group of monsters pop up around him. Nine of the newcomers are these hyperactive blue things with red eyes, but there's one huge bouncer-looking blue thing tagging along with it. "I'm going to rip you apart, little bitch!" He yells at me, then actually seems to notice the...things that showed up around him. I see his lips move before he's swarmed by the monsters.

"Hey, guys, we got what we came for, right? How about we leave?" Banthus suggests, and all of his bandits grunt their agreement and run away.

"Come back, you bastards! Give the El back, thieves!" the redhead yells, starting to go after them, but the monster circle us. "Move it, freaks!" He swings at the one in front of him, but it collapses into a puddle and circles around him. "What the hell?" He swings at it in puddle form, but it sunk into the ground just like normal, and the monster just moved out of the way and reformed. He swings at one beside it, thrusts into another one, then kicks the original one, pins it to the ground with his foot, and drives his sword into it. All three disappear in a plume of smoke, then three others charge him simultaneously.

Meanwhile, two of them swing at me while the buffed up one stomps his feet like a sumo wrestler and pound its fists together.

_Waa~? What am I supposed to do—the only weapon I know how to use is my dagger! _I back up slowly, my eyes darting between each advancing enemy. Then I feel something cling to my back, so I grab it and throw it down on the ground in front of me. I raise my sword over my head, ready to bring it down on it, but the young warrior beats me to the punch. He swings upward and kills it, then takes a position in front of me.

"Stay back. I'll take care of this." he says like nothing is wrong, though his form could say otherwise. He has multiple cuts, mostly on his arms, and he looks utterly exhausted. Nevertheless, he charges forward and dispatches the two smaller ones with ease, then focuses his sights on the bouncer monster. The thing leaps up into the air and comes down, sending a tremor through the ground. The boy trying to play hero, though, got it much worse, because his knees buckle and he falls to the ground. Then the bouncer walks up and clocks him in the jaw and he skids across the ground, coming to rest when he collides with a tree. Then the monster charges forward, its arm cocked back to land one last punch.

"No!" I yell, throwing my sword at the monster in hopes of another miracle. It flies at it and buries itself in its back. It topples forward, and rolls from the momentum it gained from the run, and stops just shy of colliding with the boy. He pushes himself up, picks up his sword which he somehow held onto through his collision with the tree, and drives it into the monster's head, and it dissipates into purple wisps as well.

I rush over to him, picking my sword up off the ground on my way there. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." he wipes his mouth with his sleeve. "I'm okay, nothing a bit of the good old 'licking the wounds' won't fix." He grunts as he puts his sword in a strap across his back and starts walking the way the bandits went. "I guess I'll see you around." I turn back to my bush-camp, and start walking toward it, but realize I never gave any thanks to him.

"Hey! You!" I call out to him, waving at him in hopes he'll notice. He turns back to me, sees me frantically waving, then strolls toward me.

"What's the problem?"

"Besides, your injuries?"

"Yeah."

"It's just I never thanked you." I say, rummaging through the bush and pulling out a bag.

He holds up his hand. "You don't have to."

"But I feel like I owe you. The least I can do is treat your injuries." I say, pulling a potion, antiseptic, a gauze pad, and band-aids out of the bag.

"Gah, fine." He sits crisscross in front of me, and I look him over. The most serious one is a gash on his abdomen, so I treat it first. He gasps when I put the antiseptic on it, but other than that, he showed no sign of being hurt. Then I treat the area just above his eyebrow, which was probably split from his collision with the tree. When I cleaned it, it looks worse without the blood, so I end up having to stitch it shut. "Where'd you learn to do this?" he asks.

"I'm a nomad of sorts. I don't mess with civilization much, so before I started my travels I was taught all of the basic survival medical protocols."

"Alright." He looks back the way the bandits escaped, and apparently sees something interesting, because he leaps up as soon as I finish and rushes over. He picks something up—a bunch of fragments of the same crystal the bandit leader had. He puts it into his bag and scrutinizes the path, then stamps his foot in frustration.

"What's wrong?" I ask, putting the medical supplies back in the bag and putting it back in the bush.

"Damn. As fast as they left, they left behind no tracks. How the hell am I supposed to get the El back now?"

I walk up beside him and hand him the potion. "Hmm...I don't know...how about I come with you? I have some experience with tracking, having lived off the beaten path for so long." I already have my backpack on, my knife in its sheath on my leg, and my scarf tied. And I brought the mystery sword, because, I have to admit, it _is_ pretty cool looking.

"What? I don't need your help. Heck, I don't even _know _you—why are you volunteering favors all of a sudden?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Because, it's better than living in a bush the rest of my life. Oh, and for becoming acquainted: my name's Qwoxieul Été."

"Huh? Qwoxieul...that's a weird name for a girl, isn't it?"

Now, I don't normally get mad; I'm normally a shy guy, but things that really pluck my nerves are either being touched without permission, or being called a girl. Though this time is an exception, because I haven't cleared things up with him, but if he calls me one after all is said and done, I'm going to put my foot up his ass. "Oh, and I should probably tell you that I'm a boy."

He takes a few more steps before he realizes what I just said, and he does a double-take. "Ha, you're kidding, right?" When he sees I'm not, he blushes for no apparent reason. "Oh...ah...whoa. You're just so...girly, ya know? In appearance, I mean." He rubs the back of his head and smiles nervously.

I look at him with the best poker face I have, then I resume our walk. "Let's go, slowpoke. We're not going to find the bandits by standing around."

"Okay..." We walk in silence for a bit, then he decides to break it. "Oh, and it's Elsword."

"Excuse me?"

"My name's Elsword. I figured you'd probably need to know it if we're going to be working together."

"Elsword, huh? That's a weird name for a girl, isn't it?"

* * *

**A/N: Alright, this was, obviously, a sort of introductory chapter. It introduced the two main _main _characters, and introduced the Elsword universe to the Keyblade. And as for that name...you can pronounce 'Qwoxieul' however you want to, but I pronounce it _qwo-shuhl,_ and the last name is pronounced _eh-tay._ Leave a review, if you don't mind, and let me know if something is off about some of the content.**


	2. Beginnings

**A/N: I'm back, and this time with pointless squabbling and breasts to spice things up!**

**Elsword: Did you really need to say that so bluntly?**

**Me: What I just did is no different than your normal behavior.**

**Elsword: What I mean is that it's plain to see that the elf lady has enormous b—Ack!**

**Aisha: You pervert! Shame on you!**

**Elsword: Ow! Stop hitting me, you brat! And why just me; Qwoxieul was staring too!**

**Aisha: It's different with girls! STOP STARING!**

**Rena: *Looks up from cuddling with Qwo* YOU TWO, STOP IT!**

**Elsword and Aisha: Sorry, Miss Rena..**

**Qwo: *Wriggles away from Rena* Alright, which one of you called me a girl?**

**Elsword: *Points at Aisha***

**Qwo: *Conjures his Keyblade***

**Aisha: *steps back* Ah...sorry?**

**Me: Stop, you guys aren't supposed to meet yet! *uses author powers to wipe their recent memories and send them back to original positions* Okay, story...continue!**

**Chapter 2: Beginnings**

* * *

"It's no use. There's not one clue to where they went, none at all!" Elsword complains, and sits on a log next to a creek.

"I know." I sigh and reposition my bag on my shoulder. "What should we do now?"

"Well, we sure as hell aren't going to give up looking for them. There's a local village—Ruben—that has people that might be able to tell us where Banthus went."

"Sounds like a plan. One that we can carry out after we rest a bit. That bear attack wore us out a bit."

"Bah, speak for yourself. I think we should get to Ruben before sundown, and a steady march can get that done." he says, and laces his fingers across his knee. He stares at the gently flowing creek water, and I find it to have a subtle melodic feel to it. His eyes are staring wistfully at the water. "Hey, Qwoxieul. I know you said you've never seen that sword before, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay. But you summoned it, which means you had already owned it."

"But that's the thing. This," I hold up the sword, "is a stranger to me. And I have no clue just how to summon it. I just...thought of hurting that creep and it appeared when I closed my fist."

"It sounds like it came when you wanted it. So—"

"It should go away when I don't want it." I turn it over in my hand. "I sure hope it's as easy as we just made it sound."

He fumbles with a strap on his shoe and gets up. "Hey, if it doesn't work, it's still your problem. Maybe you can find someone at Ruben who can help you." He then surveys the area, and points his sword at a tree. "Come out now, whoever you are." The person that steps out is a girl a bit on the short side, with purple hair, purple eyes, a purple staff, and a purple-and-white composed mage outfit.

_I wonder what her favorite color is..._

"Geez, is that how you greet all strangers?" she asks, putting her staff behind her back and holding it there. "I heard from some travelers that you were attacked by demons. Are you guys okay?"

"Well, we're here and they aren't, so what do you think?" Elsword snipes, ruder than he probably should have stated it, but got the point across nonetheless.

"Is that how you respond to someone's concern? A simple 'yes, we're okay' would have sufficed."

"The thing is, _shorty_, that I don't know you, so I don't really need to be all that polite."

And with that, a full-out war began. She brought her staff down on his head and starts to yell at him. "That's the type of sort of circumstance that you would be extra polite, you dumbass!"

I slink away from the argument-turned-fight to take note of our medical supplies, thinking that they might be necessary in the near future. Rummaging through my backpack I see we have 3 potions, two packs of band-aids, two bottles of rubbing alcohol, 3 rolls of tape, 1 container of antiseptic cream, two instant ice packs, and a package of cue tips. All things I had picked up in my latest visit to Elder a few months ago.

_I guess that'll be enough to treat his injuries this time around. I'll be able to restock at Ruben._

When I close the bag and put it back on, I see a work of pure beauty that stops my heart and all brain functions.

A beautiful elf lady, looks a few years older than me; maybe seventeen or eighteen, stares at the squabble with a troubled expression. She has green eyes and bright green hair to match, but the eye-catcher on this woman would be the...er...enormous rack mounted on her chest. It's not until she looks at me and smiles before I notice I'm staring at her. Shaking off the hormone-induced shock, I approach her.

"Er, hello. Do you need something, ma'am?" I ask, trying to be helpful in this situation.

"Ah, yes. I was wondering if you could possibly give me directions to Ruben village?" She asks cheerily, though her eyes keep moving to the battling duo.

"Ha, well that makes two of us. The only chance of directions we have is getting smacked around by the purplette over there." I say, hooking my thumb at the them.

She sighs. "I suppose we'll just have to wait for them to settle this." We remain silent, waiting for the natural end that will probably never come, so I decide to break our impatient silence.

"So...my name is Qwoxieul." I say, and offer my hand.

"My name is Rena. Nice to meet you." She takes it and smiles again at me, but her attention is pointing more at the two engaged in their kerfuffle. I have to admit that it is getting old by this point, but the two of them show no sign of letting up. In fact, I'd say it's intensifying. They're now butting heads literally, the two staring daggers at each other with mere centimeters separating their faces.

_I wonder how they would react if I pushed their heads together right now..._

Rena, however, must not have been fancying any such ideas, because it seems like she's finally snapped. She has slunk beside them and has bent down so she's on face level with the two of them, and takes a deep breath.

"YOU TWO, STOP IT!" she screams at them, and if there was any noise or movement going on within a mile radius, it has all come to a halt. The two of them look at her nervously, then notice how close they are, and blush a shade of red that rivals Elsword's hair, and straighten up immediately. Rena fumes for moments afterwards, then proceeds to bang her head on a tree.

_What the heck is wrong with her? _I wonder as I move closer to the group. "Did you guys know elves could get angry?" I whisper nervously, hoping she doesn't hear me. They both shake their heads, and await miss greenie's return.

When she comes back, she's wearing an obviously fake smile and has a twig in her hair. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up in front of you three."

"...It's fine, Miss Rena." I say, shaking the fear off, while the other two just gulp and await what else she's going to say.

"Well anyway, I was wondering if any of you could give me directions to Ruben village?" When no one replies, I elbow Elsword in the ribs, and he seems to recover from the shock. Though whether it was from Rena's explosion or Rena herself, I'm not sure.

"Oh. Well I'm headed there now; I guess you could tag along until we get there." He says, looking somewhere beyond her, probably to avoid 'pervert' accusations.

"Well, let's get going then! It would be nice to get there before sundown." The purplette says cheerily, and she starts walking. Elsword snorts his disapproval.

"Why does she have to be coming, too..." he complains to himself, as he walks the opposite direction, downhill, the direction the creek is flowing. Rena inclines her head, more in the purplette's direction.

"I'll go get her."

"And I'll go slow him down." We also part ways, and when I reach him I head-butt his shoulder, because that's the highest I can head-butt him while flat-footed. Yes, I am only maybe an inch taller than miss grape head. "Hey, Elsword. Be a gentleman and wait for the ladies, will ya?"

"What?" he responds, as he looks back and sees the two girls walking briskly to catch up, and the purplette stalking menacingly towards Elsword.

"You, my friend, are _so_ going to get it. I wish you luck." I say, and back away. The purplette, now maybe 4 meters away from us, conjures a ball of...blue. She flings it at him, and he deflects it with his sword. Though, Elsword, being the inattentive kid he is, hits it right at me. I don't have any time to react, only stand there and take the full force of the magic.


	3. El Search Party

**A/N: Well, now is probably a good time to tell you that a good chunk of the beginning is based on how the ElType comics depict how Rena, Aisha, and Elsword met. Of course, it still varies a bunch from the official storyline, but these first few chapters cling tightly to the general baseline of the ElType comics.**

**Anyway, I apologize for the sort of abrupt ending to the last chapter; I just sort of lost my train of thought, so I had to result to pointless violence. Which I can now use to advance the plot in Qwoxieul's favor...**

**Chapter 3: El Search Party**

* * *

We turned heads when we entered Ruben. Mostly because the purplette, Aisha was at it again with Elsword. To think they had just met an hour and a half ago. Now, on the other hand, I'm trying to siphon the warmth from Miss Rena because of the ice magic Aisha indirectly hit me with. Because of that, I got an hour's worth of face-full-o'-boobs. Not that I have a problem with it, and not that Rena shows any sign of being bothered by it, but that is most likely because she thinks I'm a girl. If not for Aisha, a jealous Elsword would have long since ratted me out, and that would probably end less-than-desirably.

"Whatever." he waves his hand to shoo Aisha away. "We're here, now get out of my hair."

She noticeably fumes. "You're the one in my hair, brat! Things would be just fine if you weren't so rude!"

I let go of Miss Rena, still shivering, and grab Elsword's shirt. "C'mon, we still have a goal to accomplish." I try to drag him away, but only succeed in slipping on a stray rock and falling on my butt.

"Good job, Qwo." He reaches down and pats my head, and I mock trying to bite him.

"You guys are awfully close." Aisha comments, looking condescendingly at us. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Ah, around...um...I'd say eight...hours?" Elsword ventures, looking at me for back-up. I nod my head; his estimate is about as good as mine is.

"J-just a few hours? Shouldn't you two get to know each other before hooking up and adventuring together?" she asks, and get up immediately. Elsword coughs, turn his back to them and looks curiously at me. Rena looks confused at the both of us, and Aisha looks impatient at the two of us, waiting for an answer.

"Oi, Qwo. I think that she's mistaken you for a girl..." he (unnecessarily, if I might add) motions to Aisha with his head.

"You, Aisha, may noticed that I'm flat as well." I point out, gesturing to my chest with my sword. "But, unlike you, I'm still somewhat appealing to the masses." I point to the now-fuming Aisha, but hold out my hand. "Ah, but wait! The reason is because...wait for it...because I'm a boy." I grin at both of the staring females victoriously, then turn back to Elsword. "Hey, don't we have something to do?" He nods, and I flag down the nearest person, while Elsword, being totally negligent to the intent of our adventure, chats with the other two about the gender revelation.

The man we targeted is a sturdy-looking, middle-aged man with brown hair, full beard and kind brown eyes. So, with that information, I'm going on the notion that he's as nice as he appears. "Ah, sir? Do you have a minute?" I ask him, putting my hands behind my back and lacing my hands around the hilt of my sword to come off as gentle as I can. The best way to get answers is to appeal to the interrogated. Or to be polite, but I'm going to do both, just to guarantee positive results.

"Hmm?" He looks directly over me, then looks down and sees me. "Oh, hello. My name is Hagus; what can I do for you?"

Getting over my damaged pride, I ask, "Hi. My name is Qwoxieul, and I was wondering if you had seen any bandits moving past here?" He raises his eyebrows at hearing my name, of course because he thought I was a girl, but dismisses it and goes to work on answering my question. He opens his mouth to speak, but a man—a younger one, probably 21 at the most, with pale brown hair and slightly tired-looking eyes of the same color, and wearing an outfit very similar to Elsword's getup—rushes up to Hagus and whispers quickly into his ear. His eyes widen when he finishes, and he starts stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"It seems you're answer has just arrived." he gestures to the newcomer, who grimaces, then gives me the information.

"Okay, so some of our scouts reported seeing Banthus and his bandits heading in the direction of Elder, though taking very strange paths. As of now, he's probably halfway through the Forest Ruins. Why he's going through there instead of one of the usual bandit routes, I don't know, but he did have a burlap sack slung across his shoulder..." he looks me over, with a sort of skeptic feel to it. "Wait...why do you want to know? A young lady like you doesn't seem like you would do too much time on the battlefield."

I feel my eye twitch from the irritation. "I. Am. A. Male. Get it?" I poke him in his chest with each word, and finish with kicking his shin and resting my sword over my shoulder.

He brings his shin up after the kick, rubbing it vigorously and glaring at me, but finally backing off. "Got it."

Hagus seems to follow what the messenger said, because he asks, "What exactly...do you plan on doing with this scout report? I doubt there is anything a single person can do in this situation."

"Well, me and my partner..." I look back to where they three were previously chatting, and my voice drifts off as I realize they've all dispersed. "Uh...well, his name is Elsword, and he and I were interested in tracking down the El and—needless to say—getting it back. From what I can see, he has his share of combat experience, though he's a little rough around the edges."

"And you?" Lowe asks. "What of yourself?"

"Hmm...I'm just repaying a debt I had to him, but I have no problem helping of my own accord." I turn the sword over in my hand. "Well, I'm also hoping to find out just what this is along the way."

"Looks like we have a win-win situation here. Okay, you should go and get some supplies ready and track down your partner. If you and him are willing to help, show up at the east entrance, that way." He points to my left, which I assume the entrance is over there, but I can't really see over anyone to catch a glimpse of it.

"Okay. Speaking of supplies," I ask, "is there anyone who sells med packs and potions?"

Without skipping a beat, he cuts a swath through the throng of people, and I'm forced to follow close behind lest I get left behind. After an eternity of parting a crowd of villagers, we get to a lady with pink hair and blue eyes, clutching a feather duster and helping out Aisha with her potions. We arrive right as Aisha leaves, and the lady greets us happily. "Oh, hello, Lowe! May I help you?"

"This newbie needs supplies, and I've been generous enough to cover the cost. Get to choosing."

I pick out four med packs and 12 potions, coming up to the grand total of 6,400 ED. "Ooh, pricey. Have fun!" I grin at him and walk off, stuffing the stuff in my backpack as I go. Then I scan the crowd for Elsword, but the only familiar face I see is Rena, who is talking busily to Hagus.

_C'mon, where did my good buddy the instigator run off to?_

Looking around for his distinctive red mess of hair, and find him sitting on the riverbank tying his boots. I decide to sneak up to him with an asshole-ish thought coming to mind. I move as silently as I can, though I do hear him mutter to himself. Ignoring it, I slink up to him so that I'm roughly a foot away from him, take a deep breath, and yell "Boo!"

His reaction is rich. Well, his expression is. His reaction is a different story. He jumps up, arms himself with his sword and swings at me backhand, quicker than I can ever hope to block, much less block. But, nevertheless, I yell "Stop!" and hold out my hand, like that'll stop him. Miraculously, he actually stops. But not the pull-back-at-the-last-moment stop, like he comes to an absolute and complete stop. His face is frozen in this mixture of shock and anger, and, even though today's a particularly breezy, his hair isn't moving at all. I circle around him, looking him up and down and wondering what the hell just happened when he resumes motion, slicing through the air and a leaf that happened to fall from on of the birch tree's branches above. The confusion is obvious through his body language as he slides his greatsword back into its holster, and his face betrays the same emotion as he looks at me standing virtually exactly where he was sitting mere seconds ago.

"What just happened here?" We wonder simultaneously, then I think of a possible answer.

"I think I just figured out how to stop time."

"You mean...there's actually magic for that?"

"I'm sure there is, but if there was, I've never heard about it."

"What if it's because of _that _thing?" he wonders as he snatches the sword out of my hand and stares at it, turning it over and over in his hand. I let him go about it for a few moments, then snatch it back.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was. But anyway, we need to go meet with Lowe at the eastern entrance." I again attempt to drag him, but only succeed in moving him nowhere. He pries my hand from his sleeve and looks down at me with a confused expression.

"What're we meeting with _him_?" He practically spits out his reference, putting the icing on the cake by curling up his lip. "He's a fucking jerk, and is bossy as all get out. Why do you think I was fighting alone when you found me?"

"Honestly, I just thought you were just that confident in your abilities, but geez, you hate him that much?"

"And then some. I'm not coming." He sits cross-legged and crosses his arms, emanating an aura of childish grudging, and I sigh, realizing that I'm going to have to convince him.

"You're going to miss me when I'm gone."

"No I won't."

"Oh yeah you will. You're going to miss my charm and companionship, and you're going to go crazy knowing I'm not around. Best to save yourself the trouble and just come along."

"Nonsense. Best to save your breath and accept that I won't go with him."

"Fine. Don't blame me for what happens next." I kneel down beside him, place my hand gently on his shoulder, and put on the most provocative face I can. He locks eyes with me, gulps, blushes, and then gets a massive nosebleed.

"Fine! You win, you win! Just...never do that again, ever! If you crack down on everyone who jokes on your effeminacy, why do you act like one?"

"I only act like one when it works in my favor." I say, fixing my scarf and tossing him a handkerchief I pulled out of my bag. "You can keep that."

"Thanks. Now let's go before I change my mind."

* * *

"So this is the team we have, huh?" Lowe says, looking at the four of us disappointedly.

"Yeah. You got a problem with it?" Aisha challenges him, and he just glares at her.

"Whatever." he looks at Hagus as he walks up to us, then steps back so he can say whatever he's going to say.

"I'll get straight to business. The El has been stolen from the Tree of El by the Benders Bandits, led by a man named Banthus. Lowe here has told me he is driving hard on a path a bit far off the beaten path by going through the Forest Ruins and White Mist Swamp. If you have a chance to detain him, do not hesitate to do so. Albeit he makes it to Elder, speak to a man named Hoffman. He should be able to help you from there."

"Thank you, Chief Hagus. We won't let you down." Rena says, giving him a slight bow.

"I trust you won't." He nods at her, and we begin our adventure, Elsword, Rena, Aisha and I.


	4. The Forest Ruins

**A/N: Uh...yeah...enjoy this next chapter, I guess.**

**Chapter 4: The Forest Ruins**

* * *

"These are supposed to be...ruins?" Aisha wonders, marveling at the vine and moss stone structures surrounding us.

"I suppose so. But regardless of their classification, they're still beautiful." I agree, adjusting my bag's strap on my shoulder.

"I can vouch for that. This place was just as beautiful then as it is now." Rena says wistfully, walking up to one of the pillars and putting a hand to a chiseled into it.

"Just how old are you?" Elsword asks, and I can see Rena visibly make an effort not to hit him. Instead, she gives him a forced smile and points to her pointed ears.

"Ah, right. Elves live, like, forever or something like that." He mutters to himself, then gets whacked in the head by Aisha's staff.

"Do you have any clue how rude you were just then? Never, _ever_ ask a woman her age!"

"I think the only one being rude here is _you._ STOP HITTING ME!"

"Miss Rena...they're at it again..." I needlessly point out.

"I'm aware. But I'm sure they'll resolve this quickly. Won't they?" She raises her voice on the last part, and the two of them stop mid-swing, or mid-spell, in Aisha's case. I'm guessing they decide to be proactive, because they both go to either side of Rena and I, probably using us as a buffer. We continue our advance in silence, all of us noticing something but not willing to point it out. Finally, I decide to go on and do it anyway.

"Uh...guys? I think we lost Lowe..."

"That's a good thing, Qwoxieul." Elsword says.

"Yeah, but he's sort of our guide..."

"It shouldn't be that hard to find our way around. There's no way in hell we're catching up with Banthus before we get to Elder, so we just have to continue in this general direction."

"But we have to get out of the ruins first."

"Yeah."

"Alright, stop talking and lead on, O' Great Leader." Aisha commands, and he surprisingly obliges without a clever retort. We plow forward, taking many twists and turns, but Elsword shows no sign of being fazed by the plant-covered labyrinth. At least, until we reach a dead-end.

"Okay...uh...this is a dead-end, obviously. So...we should probably retrace our steps." Elsword says.

"You don't say?" I snipe, and he doesn't respond to this one, either. He just stands there stupidly as we wait for him to lead us out.

"Go on and admit it, Elsword. We've all figured it out by now." Rena says, walking up to him and patting him reassuringly on the shoulder.

"...Fine...we're lost."

I think we all know what happens next. Aisha blames him, Elsword tries to defend himself, they start bickering about something completely irrelevant from what started the argument, and Rena puts a stop to it with her own class of intimidation. While that all ensues, I poke around the wall impeding our progress for sake of finding another one of the runes that are scattered around the ruins. I move some kudzu out of the way and find not another rune, but an oversized keyhole.

_What the heck is this doing here?_

I compare my sword to the hole, and it seems like it would fit, so why not? I put the sword in and turn it, saying "open sesame!" just for effect. Nothing happens, so I pull out the sword, and, right as it's pulled out, I see a light at the end of the sword, and something is shot into the keyhole, and the wall slides out of the way with a lot of rumbling to reveal a downward staircase. I look back at the other three to see if they noticed, and surprisingly, Aisha and Elsword are at it again even though Rena just intervened mere moments ago.

_Oh well. One peek and I'll go right back._

I walk down the stairs into a very large room, which, unlike the area above, actually is in ruins. There's a wall covered in bookshelves, most of which have collapsed on themselves. Parts of the ceiling have caved in and rocks are piled up in many areas on the floor. In the center of the room is an altar with a statue of a robed woman suspended above it, her hand outstretched to the ground, though if there was anything it was reaching towards, it's long gone.

At least, that's what I thought until I see three of the hyperactive puddle-monsters running off with a luminescent turquoise crystal.

"Gah, these things again?" I complain and run after them. They throw the fractal up right as I strike them, and I see a bird with similar red eyes snatch it up in its beak and fly in the opposite direction.

I rush after the bird to follow it, and hopefully get Rena's attention so she can shoot it down. But right as the bird reaches the base of the stairs, two of the steroid monsters appear, and I find myself backing up. And, in a wonderful moment of losing focus, my sword vanishes. I raise my hand and will it to appear multiple times, but nothing happens.

"Oh _come_ _on_! When I actually need you you decide to disappear? After I tried so hard to get you to disappear earlier?" I curse the cowardly weapon and draw my dagger, though I doubt it will be able to get me out of this. In front of me are the two steroid-type monsters, behind me are the three puddle-type monsters, and on either side of me are a vine-type monster, with its two arms covered in thorns and having a drill-like mechanism for its leg.

I decide to take my chances with the puddles. I back up slowly, then turn around and kick one out of my way. I run to the closest pile of rocks and start throwing them at the monsters. Though it did kill two of the puddles and one of the vine monsters, it only succeeded to piss the three remaining monsters off. The vine monster starts glowing, then starts spinning towards me, with its arms extending about twice their normal size.

_Shit!_ I run as quickly as I can away from it, and in the process run at the two bruisers, who are pounding their fists together in preparation of the beatdown they are never going to be able to dish out. I slide the legs of one of them, then run up the steps, looking back to see the thorn monster collide with the bruisers and miraculously kill them both. When I get to the top I see Elsword, Rena, and Aisha engaged in a battle with three floating red pots, six puddle monsters, four bruisers, and two thorn monsters.

I mutter a prayer to the Lady of El and tackle a bruiser that was about to crush a dazed Elsword. Really, all I did was bounce off it, but it did its job of getting its attention. It responds to my failed tackle with a spinning punch that left a hole in the ground where I was before I rolled away. I get up and slash it repeatedly with my dagger, bobbing and weaving between attacks to keep it moving, hoping that it will get gassed. I succeeded in getting that result, but its punches hurt just as much as expected, as I found out as it clipped me in the shoulder. I fall painfully on my dominant shoulder, but spring right back up as it charges at me. I time my jump right as it's about to collide with me, and I stab it in the neck, pull it around to the back of it and rip it out. It disappears in a purple mist, and a fireball flies through it and nearly hits me straight it the face, but a sword comes down and blocks it in the nick of time.

"You alright, rookie?" Lowe asks as he takes up an offensive stance in front of me.

"Y-yeah. Thank you..."

"No problem." He blocks another fireball and runs at the pot firing the projectiles at him. He grabs the pot by the rim and smashes it on the ground.

I look up and see the bird still flying away with the El shard still in its beak. "Rena!" She looks up from shooting the last thorn monster. I point at the bird, and she nods her head. She fires an arrow and it flies in a wide arc before it buries itself in the bird and it dissipates, dropping the crystal somewhere in the distance.

Around that time, everyone finishes off the last monsters. Aisha freezes the last fire pot, Elsword and Lowe eviscerate a bruiser and a puddle each, and Rena snipes the vine monster that followed me out. "Is everyone okay?" Lowe asks, and we all nod. We've sustained only minor injuries, so its nothing to worry anyone about. "Alright, good. Where did you guys go?"

"We kept on going forward. Where did _you _go?" Elsword asks.

"I took a left when we reached the fork."

"...Oh..." he rubs his wrist and bites his lip.

I decide to sneak away because I can sense another conflict brewing, and because I'm going to retrieve the shard that landed on the ground. When I reach it, I reach for it slowly. I have no real reason for doing it slowly, but I felt that I should.

Big mistake. A cute little bear-like animal with white fur rushes in, takes it, and retreats into a hole in the wall.

It takes me a second to realize what happened, and when I do, I mutter a string of curses, a string that Rena happened to overhear. "Excuse me?"

"Huh?" When I see her, there's a fear building up inside me well justified by how explosive she is when Elsword and Aisha collide. "Ah, nothing! I just...uh...bumped my shoulder against the wall, and it was hurt in the fight, so those words just...slipped."

"Mm-hmm. That's quite the vocabulary you have, though. One that is awfully contradictory to your innocent demeanor."

"Ha...well, you pick up on a lot wandering from place to place."

"I suppose so. So did you find that El shard?"

"Uh...a...thing stole it. The people at Ruben called it a 'phoru' something or other."

"A phoru, huh? I heard they usually keep to themselves."

"Maybe it thought it was food."

"Possible, but unlikely. They are intelligent creatures." Rena says.

"Maybe we'll find out later."

"And hopefully it's in a good way." Rena adds as we walk back to the group.

* * *

"My god! We can't go ten minutes without being attacked?" Aisha complains.

We all respond with drawing our weapons, and I try to summon my sword again, and this time it actually works. The blade appears in my hand with a flash of light. "Oh, so now you want to come? Geez, you're so difficult." I monologue, effectively making my self look like a total loon. Around us are a mix of phoru and assorted monsters, ranging from birds to vine monsters to puddles to flame pots to bruisers, and as an added bonus, we get walking treasure chests. As if we didn't have enough crap going on before now. And at the center of the hostile mass is a larger phoru wearing suspenders and wielding a sword.

"This is like, a mini army! How in the hell is this fair?" I add on to Aisha's complaint.

I see a phoru rush through the crowd and hand the lead phoru an El shard. "Ha! More treasure!"

"These phoru...raiding the ruins? The phorus usually keep to themselves; what brought them to do this?" Lowe wonders as he readies himself for attack.

"You don't have to listen to me, but I think it's courtesy of that wannabe ball of fur over yonder." I decide to fancy the idea of a greedy phoru going on raids for fun. I mean, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't if the law couldn't touch me. If not for the law, I would be thieving left and right, day and night. Okay, I might have exaggerated the 'day and night' part, but you get what I'm saying.

The lead phoru raises his sword and yells "Attack!" Only the phoru move at first, but I guess the monsters decided to follow along, and we soon find ourselves staring down a wall of cute and evil.

The first enemy to reach me is a puddle monster, followed by two flame pots. I decapitate the puddle, dodge a fireball and hurl one of the pots at the other one. Slowly but surely I make my way towards the leader, because the larger masses of enemies are either attacking Elsword or Lowe, which leaves my path largely unhindered. At least, until a bruiser grabs me by the hair and throws me into the waiting vines of the crowd of thorn monsters. The each grab a limb, their thorns cutting deep into my skin. I suppress a squeal and struggle to get out. I think of taking my chances and stopping time again, but then I remember what Aisha was babbling to Elsword about when he insulted magic.

_"Simple magic is just that—simple. The basic stuff deals with the elements: Fire, Water, Nature, Wind, Light, and Darkness. In order to perform any magic, you have to have a clear picture of what you want to happen, and, because it strengthens and solidifies the connection from what's going on in your mind to what's around you, yell out the element name, or what you want the element to do. Really, Elsword, anyone can do it. Well, apparently anyone except you."_

I decide to give a different type of magic a shot, and, imagining a cyclone forming around me, and yell "Wind!"

Surprisingly, it works, because a cyclone visibly appears around me and sweeps the monsters into the air, and finally scatters them willy-nilly all over the place. "That...was so cool..." I say through gasps and whimpers. The cuts on my legs burn like they've been lit on fire. When I look down, I see that a baby flame is burning on the ground beside my legs. "Hot hot hot!" I complain, rubbing them furiously then stomping out the fire. I look up and see the phoru commander now playing leader, because he's steadily advancing towards me. He takes a few steps and then abruptly starts running at me. I ready myself in a stance similar to a sprinter, then do just that. Right before it seems he's going to impale me, I leap over him in a single bound. Like...a superhuman, except that its almost a foot-and-a-half shorter than me, so the only person I would have been able to impress with that would be the physically handicapped. When I land behind him, I decide to try my hand with another type of magic. I think of freezing him, and logically yell, "Freeze!" This time a sphere of blue just like the one that Aisha indirectly hit me with appears at the end of it and launches itself at the phoru, hitting it squarely in the back. I can see the hair on its back visibly freeze, and part of its kilt is frozen into place as well. He shivers, but stays strong. He turns around and readies itself to attack again.

"You think this is gonna stop me? Think again!" He swings at my legs, a move so obvious that I could easily hop over it. But it turns out that was just a feint, because he reverses direction and hits me in the jaw with the handle. I fall to the ground, trying to blink away the spots in my vision, when I see him bring the sword up over his head. Then he drops it as something lights up behind him. He then starts to freak out, swatting wildly at his back which is on fire. Where he was standing is Aisha, who has a sadistic grin on her face as she advances on the phoru. She taps his back with her staff and the flame goes out. He still squirms and she says something to him as she heals it. She says some more inaudible words, and when the phoru shakes his head, she lights a fire beside his head, and then he nods frantically. She puts out the fire and then heals his back, and I see the phoru take a deep breath after he cranes his neck to look at his now-hairless back, and yells "Phoru, stop fighting!" All of the phoru, most of which were just standing back and cheering the monsters on, look back at the leader like he's crazy. He says something to them in Phorean, and they all retreat after he tells something to Aisha that makes her look murderously at him.

Rubbing my jaw, I get up and look at the remaining monsters, which are composed up of almost all bruisers, and there are puddles sprinkled amongst them all. I walk over to Aisha and tap her on the shoulder. "Hey, why didn't you get him to dispel those things?" I ask, kicking away one puddle and stabbing another one that happened to stray towards us.

She growls something to herself as she smacks a bruiser with her staff then lights it on fire. "He said he didn't really have control of them; that they sort of just responded to his thoughts or something."

"Well that's not very helpful." I roll in front of a bruiser's punch, then jump up, performing a true rising slash as it cuts through the monster and sends it to oblivion.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Elsword get hit by a bruiser, but the monster flies back, and when I look closer, I see him covered in a red aura. At first I think it's just a trick of the light, but it won't go away, so...yeah. There's something to bother him about later.

Before I realized it, we finished off all of the monsters. I sigh and try to dematerialize my sword, and this time it cooperates. _Looks like I've made some progress with this thing. That's good._

"Is everyone okay?" Aisha asks, giving all of us a once-over before freezing on a gash on Elsword's leg. Looking at his whole body, he looks a bit worse for wear. A bunch of the injuries he had earlier have reopened, and he is leaning on his sword like a crutch. "Oh my gosh, Elsword. You're going to get yourself killed fighting like that!" I hand her the first-aid kit and let her go to work doctoring him up.

"I tell him that all the time, but he doesn't listen." Lowe adds, though I don't think anyone gives a crap.

"Alright, Miss Rena, take a look and tell me what's wrong with this situation." I tell her, gesturing to Dr. Aisha and the weak-looking Elsword.

"Nothing is wrong with it; it's just different from what we're used to. I think it's cute that Aisha's gotten over herself to help Elsword out."

"Meh. Good for them, yadda yadda yadda." I wave my hand dismissively.

"Ow! That hurts!" Elsword complains.

"Oh, shut up and take it like the man you're supposed to be growing to be. Do you want my help or not?"

Elsword uncharacteristically does just that, shocking Lowe, Rena and I.

"She actually made him be quiet..." Lowe says in awe.

"Well, I guess I'd better report back to Chief Hagus." As if on cue, a man comes out of nowhere and kneels in front of Lowe. "Let him know what happened here, and that there are demons appearing all over the place, ones that I have not seen before."

"And tell him that he shouldn't have any more problems with William. If he does, tell him to let me know." Aisha says while bandaging Elsword's leg.

The scout nods and then takes off.

"Well then, let's go. If we advance in that direction," Lowe points to our right, "then we'll end up in White Mist Swamp, where Banthus is likely to be soon. We need to cover as much distance as we can before nightfall."

The prospect of nightfall was the deciding factor to listen to him. "He's right. We need to go, now."


	5. Swampy Evening

**A/N: Alright, how about we put Aero, Blizzard, and Stop under Qwo's belt? I think that's good progress magic-wise, but I feel he should really start working on his swordsmanship.**

**Qwo: I would be doing just that if I could control this damned thing.**

**Me: Please. Your just too soft to yank the reins on that bucking bronco. You're in control; you need to use it.**

**Qwo: This is going to be one hard horse to tame, then.**

**Chapter 5: Swampy Evening**

* * *

I look out over the nearby swamp from my perch in the tree branches. It's amazing, the beauty that nature has in store for us. Peaceful even, the call of the owls, the rustle of the grass and leaves in the wind, the rhythmic chirps of the crickets ringing through the night.

It's terrifying.

The dark is unnerving. You never know what's waiting for you in it; it just leaves you at the mercy of your sadistic imagination, making you envision a dozen different dreadful situations while waiting for that light that is not guaranteed to come.

But at the same time, the darkness is wonderful. You can un-see what you don't want to see, you can make your own little reality within the real reality. The dark is fun, joy, an enthralling anticipation, a thrilling exploration, a warmth, but it's always an extravagant _fantasy_.

These opposing parts are so contradictory its incredible that they're the same thing. But the darkness is basically what you make it to be.

Now, what I make the darkness as is, in my father's exact words, _damn scary_.

I look up into the void that I call the back of my eyelids and wait for a sleep I know will never come on its own. Sighing and inwardly admitting my defeat to fear, I make my way down the tree, coming to rest on a branch then finally back-flipping off of it onto the grass. Looking at the others to see if I woke them up, Rena is sound asleep in her green sleeping bag, cuddling with a baby phoru she insisted we take with us from the ruins. Aisha is sleeping halfway in her purple one, halfway in the grass, and Elsword is...nowhere to be found. Well, he's not in his sleeping bag, at least.

Up for a little adventure, I follow the trampled grass down to where Elsword is steadily hacking away at some tree knights. He's displaying a finesse I've failed to notice in the earlier skirmishes, as if he has a greater drive than before. Through the wood-splinters and light fog, he could almost be crying, if I didn't know enough about him that proves otherwise.

"Can't sleep?" I ask him after he finishes off the last one.

"That sounds about right. Same for you?"

"Duh. Want to talk about it?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt." He takes a seat in the center of the wood minefield he created, and I kneel at the edge of it.

"Was it a nightmare?"

He nods and rubs his eye. Looking closer, it seems he actually was crying.

"You mind telling me about it?"

For a moment it seems he's ignoring me given that he's staring motionless at the ground beside him, but finally he says, "It's more of a memory. I lost someone I care about, one I still haven't found yet."

"Does this memory-slash-nightmare usually trigger training sessions?"

"Every time. If I can get stronger I can find my sister." He clenches his fists to emphasize the point.

"I know how you feel; I've lost people important to me, too."

"But that's a story for another time." He gets up and stares hard behind me.

"I was actually going to tell you now, but—" I'm cut off as he charges right at me. I step to the side just in time to see him stab a bruiser through the chest. "Sheesh. We can't get a break, can we?"

"No, we can't. Let's go." He runs back to camp, and I follow suit, though not entirely sure why. Nevertheless, I summon my sword, feeling a battle coming right around the corner.

When we get back to camp, we see around two dozen puddles surround the girls, with Aisha sleeping with a worried expression and muttering frantically. Elsword wastes no time in dispatching the left dozen, so I decide to take care of the right.

Given I have no training in using swords, my go-to attack pattern is 'swing in the enemy's general direction'. Due to that, I was only able to take down four of them.

_Oh, screw this._

I decide to go with magic, thinking of stopping them like I stopped Elsword earlier, give the vocal command, and the monsters oblige. With that, I slice each one in turn and when they all return to our time zone they dissipate into their characteristic blue-purple plume of smoke. Looking over at Elsword, his are doing the same.

When we look back to the girls, Rena is sitting up and holding the baby phoru, looking at us in shock. Aisha is also sitting up, breathing heavily and clutching her chest, her eyes wide and sweat beading on her brow.

"What just happened?" Rena asks, alternating between looking at Elsword and I and humming reassuringly to the phoru.

"Well,—"

"We were attacked by those monsters again. We're going to need to sleep in shifts if we want any sleep at all." Elsword interrupts my beginnings of a lie with a dose of realism. "I'll take care of first watch." he volunteers, despite his less-than-okay condition.

"No, you won't. You need to get some rest." Rena says, pointing to his sleeping bag.

"But—"

"No buts. Trust me, you'll thank me later."

"Fine." He gets in his sleeping bag, and despite his stubbornness, his resolve depletes quickly as his eyes close and he starts to sleep.

"You can go back to sleep, Miss Rena. I'm not getting to sleep any time soon." I say.

"You don't have to tell me twice." She snuggles back into her sleeping bag with the baby phoru and closes her eyes. "Wake me up in a few hours."

"Okay." Within a few moments, the only two left awake are me and Aisha. "Are you okay?"

"...Sure...Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She tries to dismiss any further questions, but not very effectively.

"You can tell me, you know. I have no problem playing the role as counselor."

"Thanks, but no thanks. No offense, but we just met earlier today, so I don't think either of us are at liberty to do something like that."

"Geez, you make it sound like I'm trying to ask you on a date. I'm just trying to be neighborly." I say, unconsciously playing with my hair.

"Well can you back up on the 'neighborly' for a few days?" I don't respond for lack of something to say. When she realizes I'm not going to say anything, she lays back down, so I take up position up in my bed tree and wait for something interesting to happen. Before long I see a mini-squadron of tree knights advancing from the riverbank.

I realize I'm smiling when I get down from the tree. "Geez, I'm that eager to get started?"

* * *

**A/N: Okay, I realize I took far too long to write something as short as this. Sorry about that, its just that I had my Writing SOL (Exam), and three projects due, etc. But anyway, I'll try to keep the margins between updates shorter if I can.**


	6. Progress

**A/N: Sheesh, we're finally making it out of Ruben this time around. That's nice; it's my least-favorite region.**

**I hereby reserve the right to create my own Unversed, though I'm only going to apply this to mini-bosses and the like. As a result of that, I'm going to shove another disclaimer in your faces.**

**Disclaimer: _I, Dragonmaster870, do not own the Kingdom Hearts content, nor any Elsword content. The only parts I can say I own are my OCs, any original Unversed, Qwoxieul's job classes, all Elrios Keyblades, and the characters' sanity._**

**Chapter 6: Progress**

* * *

"Does Banthus actually treat his underlings decently? I'm surprised these many bandits stayed behind to aid his escape." Rena comments, shooting down another bandit.

"From what I can see, they operate a bit like an evil family. They'd die for each other." I say.

"I'd hate to be part of that family..." Aisha cosigns.

"Yeah..." I look at Elsword, who seems a bit too angry to be fighting. I'm honestly afraid he'll turn on us if we look at him wrong. "Do any of you know what's wrong with him?"

"Nope." The girls say in unison.

"Alrighty then. Looks we can save ourselves some energy by following behind him; anyone up for some slipstreaming?" I ask, letting the opportunist within speak.

"As tempting as it sounds, it'll be safer to fight with him." Rena rejects.

"She has a point..." Aisha says, her face revealing undoubtedly that she wanted to slack off.

"Ugh, fine. I guess I'll help too."

We hack, slash, snipe, and magic our way forward, defeating tree knights, bandits, fairy guardians, monsters, an maybe a monkey or two until we reach a very large phoru. Not like the one that attacked Elsword and I after our first encounter with Banthus, but one that looks like how I envisioned Dark Nephilim from the fairy tales my parents used to tell me, except whiter and smaller...

"Whoa..." Aisha mutters.

"What have they been feeding that thing?" I wonder to myself.

"What does it matter? We take it down and keep on moving!" Elsword yells determinedly, and starts running but is clothes-lined instantaneously by Rena.

"Is violence your solution to everything? That phoru is one of the guardians of the same El fractal we're searching for! Banthus already screwed with the balance of the nature surrounding Ruben; injuring or killing that phoru will only disrupt it even further!"

"So what do you suggest we do?" Elsword asks, and if he didn't have any murderous intent before, it's certainly present now.

"I'm not really sure..." Rena says worriedly, but whether the tone is for her own safety or for the phoru, I'm not sure.

"So do we just use nonlethal force against this thing that obviously has no restraints on its lethality?" I ask.

"I suppose so."

"ELSWORD! GET BACK HERE!" Aisha yells at him, and we all turn to see him confronting the beast.

"I promise not to hurt him too much!" He calls back then goes blitzkrieg on the unlucky animal.

Rena sighs. "Is everyone of your generation this hardheaded?"

"I'd say a good chunk of us are." I admit.

It looks like the battle was going in Elsword's favor until the phoru started breathing fire. I expected the fire to make him shy away at the least, but he makes no sign that its bothering him, and soldiers forward. He closes the phoru's mouth with a downward punch, then hits it in the side of its head with the flat side of his sword, and then he elbows it in the neck. The phoru slumps to the ground with barely a sound. Before long I hear it snoring.

"Um...what the hell just happened here?" Aisha asks.

"I think I may have put it to sleep..." He suggests, and then falls backward and falls asleep himself.

"Is he gonna be okay?" I ask, kneeling down beside him and pulling up one of his eyelids.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's just exhausted, I hope." Rena says after examining him.

_Yeah...he's just exhausted; let's go with that._

* * *

"Hagus said something about going to see this 'Hoffman' person, right?" Aisha asks.

"Yeah. Time to ask around." I turn and try to find a kind-looking figure, and finally rest on a young woman with orange hair, wearing a brown dress, a hat of the same color, and quite a few accessories. When she sees me walking in her direction, her eyes light up.

"Oh my gosh! You are sooo CUTE~!" And with that exclamation comes a suffocating glomp. "You know what would make you even cuter?"

Before I even open my mouth, she whips out some cat ears and puts them on my head then snaps her fingers, then my body decides to register them as my own.

"Perfect!" She smiles at her handiwork, and I try to pull off her 'handiwork', but it hurts for me to try to take them off. "Oh, don't do that to your ears! You have to wait for at least three days before the magic wears off!"

_Ugh...why does this have to happen to me?_

"Do you have a mirror?" I ask.

"Yes. Here you are." She pulls a hand mirror seemingly out of thin air and gives it to me. Looking at myself, I can confess that I do look rather cute, and the ears have adopted my lavender hair color.

_Well...I suppose it's not all bad. It'll make it easier to get what I want._

"Well, uh, thanks for the ears, um..."

"Luchiel."

"Miss Luchiel. Would you mind telling me where a man named Hoffman is?"

"Oh, sure! Follow me!" She leads me somewhere across town, and during the journey we pass Elsword, Aisha, and Rena, all either chatting with villagers or buying something from the venders scattered across the place. Before long she leads me to a rather creepy-looking man looking to be in his early 40's, with short black hair and a black shirt lined with gold. "Oh Hoffma~n! This young man wants to speak with you!"

I sigh. "Okay, I think I should let you know that I'm a—wait, what?" Surprisingly, she knew that I'm a boy. I mean, girls have always done significantly better in identifying myself, but to know it on the first try? That's rare. "Oh, um, yeah. I'd like to speak with you, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." He smiles in what I think is an attempt to be kind, but I just think it makes him look even creepier.

"Alright, I'll get straight to the point: Ruben Chief Hagus suggested I meet with you. I'm hoping you might be able to give me any pointers as to where the bandit leader Banthus is hiding."

"Oh, so you must be part of the aforementioned group of heroes Hagus told me about."

"I would be so bold as to call us heroes, but I am one-fourth of the members of that group."

"Ah, a modest one. Why don't you go round up the rest of your team, and we'll talk inside over a cup of tea."

"Um...sure!"

* * *

"I see...I'll see what information I can bring to you. In the meantime, why don't you guys head outside of Elder Village, towards Wally's Memorial Bridge? Bandits are stealing goods from the merchants; you'll be sure to gain the merchants' trust if you return some of the stolen goods." Hoffman explains after taking a sip from his third cup of tea. Rena and I take another sip of ours as well, and Elsword still has his arms crossed and is glaring at Aisha across the table.

"I don't think that'll be too hard." Rena comments, looking uneasily between the two.

"Yeah, piece of cake." I mutter with no sarcasm at all, dreading the fighting I know will soon come.

"Elsword, Qwoxieul, why don't you two go and retrieve some of the stolen goods? Aisha and I will see to finding a place of residence."

"Yeah, let's go get some fresh air." I say, and try to drag him out of the room for sake of lessening the tension in there. He brushes me off and walks out himself, so I follow along quickly.

"Damn, Aisha makes me sick. She gets on my last nerve! Gah!" He kicks a rock out of his way and it bounces off of the side of a house and hits him in the face. "Ow!" He rubs his cheek and looks around until his eyes rest on the ears Luchiel ever-so-kindly magicked to my head.

"Whoa. Way to add points to your innocent look. I mean, really! The ears...pfft...HAHAHAHA!" He has a laughing fit right in the middle of the street, drawing a quite a few eyes our way.

"Shut up!" I kick him in his shin, and he immediately obliges. "Let's just go get the stolen goods, okay?"

His eyes light up at the mention of stolen goods. "Yeah...let's go take down some bandits!"

* * *

Another bandit taken down, another body looted for the stolen goods. By this point we've retrieved a good amount of those goods, including a few puppies, and it's starting to get dark.

"Wanna head back?" I ask.

"Yeah. I'm beat." Elsword admits, lugging the sack full of assorted goodies over his shoulder. "Let's go."

A good half-hour of walking later, and we've given the goods to Hoffman, and we're directed to a hotel where (unfortunately) the four of us have two adjoining rooms. Elsword washed up first, and was out and passed out on the bed before you could say "Flame Geyser".

_Looks like I'm taking the couch._

I take my own shower, spending careful time on my _very_ sensitive ears. I get out and look at myself in the mirror, again taking in the effeminate cuteness my parents and Luchiel have so misguidedly blessed me with. "Really, this is so unfair..."

I leave the bathroom and make myself comfortable on the couch in my lavender silk pajamas. I know it definitely wouldn't help any confusion if someone saw me like this, but whatever. They're comfortable, and that's all that matters.

I lay down and stare at the ceiling, and finally sleep over takes me.

* * *

**A/N: Short and sweet, straight to the point: getting out of Ruben. I think I accomplished that pretty well. Things might have been a little choppy this chapter, (sorry about that) but I just can't seem to concentrate on anything anymore. I should probably fix that soon; benchmarks are unfortunately on Friday the 28th, but no matter. That doesn't really relate to the story.**

**Now, in the next few chapters things are going to be a bit...foreign. And time lapse-y. All in the name of job changes, of course. And now I'm going to change POVs from Elsword's to Qwo's and back again, to make things interesting.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter...which might not come so soon given that Elesis is going to be available for play on the 26th—I'm going to be playing Elsword non-stop most likely, until I get bored or serious inspiration causes me to write again.**

**Oh, whatever. See y'all later, with another chapter and possibly more sleep.**


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